Might there be conversations recorded,too?

May 5, 2009 — wanitakeadilan

RPK reveals his ‘source’ on Altantuya allegations

May 5, 09 6:34pm

Popular blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin,
in a posting today, revealed what he claimed
was his source for his sensational allegation
that Malaysia’s first lady Rosmah Mansor was
at the scene when a Mongolian woman
was murdered.

MCPX

According to Raja Petra, the information
came from Lt Kol Azmi Zainal Abidin, who is
the “number two in the Special Branch of the Military Intelligence”.

In a posting which appeared in
Raja Petra’s Malaysia Today website, the controversial blogger said he was put in touch
with Lt Kol Azmi by one of his long-standing
friends – Nik Azmi Nik Daud, who is an aide
to Umno veteran leader Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.

Raja
Petra’s revelations were made in his trademark
colourful style in the form of a dialogue between
him and his police interrogators when he was
detained under the Internal Security Act
last August.

When asked by his interrogators whether
he could trust his source since he did not know
him, Raja Petra reportedly answered: “I don’t
know him well enough to trust him all the way.
But the person who introduced us is a very old friend.

“I’ve known him for about 45 years,
longer than I’ve known my wife. And I trust
my friend. My friend gave me his personal
assurance that the story is legit.”

According to Raja Petra, he had also
sought help from a few other people to
vouch for Lt Kol Azmi’s credibility,
among them PKR de facto leader
Anwar Ibrahim through his aide, Din Merican.

“I also asked John Pang, who also works
for Ku Li (Tengku Razaleigh), to check with
Ku Li whether Lt Kol Azmi’s information is reliable.
I told John what Lt Kol Azmi told us and asked
him to inform Ku Li about it. John confirmed
that Lt Kol Azmi told Ku Li the same thing and that the information is reliable.”

Pang, who is an aide to Razaleigh, said he did receive a phone call from Raja Petra regarding the matter.

“Yes, Raja Petra did ask me about it and
I confirmed that Ku Li was aware of the story,”
said Pang when contacted today.

He added that his boss did not dispute
Raja Petra’s account pertaining to his contact
with Lt Kol Azmi.

Razaleigh has declined to comment
apart from saying, “Read the (Raja Petra’s) blog.”

According to Pang, Nik Azmi is not an
official member of Razaleigh’s staff.

Misgivings
in signing statutory declaration

Raja Petra also revealed that he had
misgivings in signing a statutory declaration
based on the information which he received
from Lt Kol Azmi.

“I told Bull (Nik Azmi) I was a bit worried
about signing a statutory declaration because
the government will surely arrest and charge
me if I do. I felt an article would be safer.

“But Bull disagreed. He felt an article
was not strong enough. Bull said if anything
happens to me they would go to court to testify
that what I had signed is the truth.
Bull assured me they would not allow me to rot in jail.
So, on June 18 (2008), I signed the
statutory declaration.”

Raja Petra, 59,
has been charged for criminal defamation in a
statutory declaration which he signed
implicating Rosmah, who is wife of Prime Minister
Najib Abdul Razak, and two others in the grisly murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu in 2006.

He has also charged with sedition
for his posting ‘Let’s send Altantuya murderers
to hell’, but he failed to turn up in court last month.

Raja Petra also claimed that former minister
Jamaluddin Jarjis, who is from Najib’s home
state of Pahang, had contacted him to
“make a deal”.

“We drove to a roadside stall in
Jalan Ipoh (in Kuala Lumpur) and sat there
and talked. JJ (Jamaluddin Jarjis) told me that
Najib had asked him to meet me to make a deal.
I asked him whether Najib really knows we are
meeting and whether he had endorsed or
sanctioned the meeting and JJ replied that
our meeting was on Najib’s instructions,”
Raja Petra allegedly told his interrogators.

“We spent about an hour talking.
The bottom line is he wanted me to stop
writing about Najib and Altantuya. He also
asked me whether I could delay my sedition
trial until Najib becomes the prime minister.
Once Najib is installed as prime minister,
they will drop the charges against me.
I will also receive a monthly allowance
of RM30,000 for my cooperation.
He didn’t say for how long though.”

Raja Petra said that he did not make
the deal and soon after he signed the
statutory declaration.

Meanwhile, veteran opposition leader
Lim Kit Siang said that Raja Petra’s
latest revelation has again show
the urgent need for a royal commission to
probe the scandal.

“I had repeatedly made in Parliament
for a royal commission of inquiry to deal
with all the allegations haunting and hounding Najib,
especially as he had said that he was innocent
and had not done anything wrong,” he said.